


Faces on The Battlefield

by Reifromspace



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: After the battle of Hogwarts, Multi, Slow Burn Drarry - Freeform, Teen Dad Harry, for this story as much as it pains me, yes sadly everyone is still dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-04-29 08:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14469138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reifromspace/pseuds/Reifromspace
Summary: The battle of Hogwarts claimed the lives of many people Harry loved dearly, including the parents of his godson, and he must learn to deal with that. In trying to pick up their lives and make things fit back into place Harry ends up with sole custody of Teddy.Draco doesn't know where he belongs anymore, he never really fit on the dark side but fear had kept him there for years, now he must struggle with the one question he could never answer. Who was he?





	1. Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This may not be my first time writing Harry Potter Fanfic but it has been many years since I last did. I started a tumblr blog for my writing which is Writing-in-space where you can find important information like my posting schedule, receive updates and get exclusive thoughts and maybe even some small side stories, you can even ask me questions! I hope you enjoy this story!

56.

56 faces that he would never see again.

While he did not know most of them personally, they were those who had filled the background of his years at Hogwarts. 

A young muggle born girl from Hufflepuff, a year younger than him who had once gone around school back from holidays handing out gingerbread cookies she’d brought back with her. He was pretty sure her name was Robin. He had never met her parents but the first thought that came to mind as he passed by where she lay amongst the others was that he would have to send along a letter, something nice, perhaps he could find a picture of her with the gingerbread, surely someone had to have one. She wasn’t even supposed to be there, but like other members of the D.A. she had snuck back in to fight.

He passed a young boy, no older than 13 crying with his brother’s boyfriend over a still body. Charlie? Charles? Harry wished he could name each one, wished that the mourning he felt in his heart was alleviated by fond memories, but all he could remember was being jealous of the two boys curled up together in the common room of Gryffindor tower.

He stopped and hugged both of those mourning, he could not just walk past and not give any recognition.

This was what made getting to those he knew a long process, though perhaps that was a form of blessing in disguise, no amount of mental preparation could have braced him though.

The first face he knew for certain was Colin.

He had watched them carry the boy’s body in from the courtyard, like Robin, Colin had snuck back in, Harry wondered if in the last few moments the boy had regretted that decision, if any of them had. A thought that would haunt Harry for a long time.

They had chosen to come and fight, but had they been old enough to really register the consequences that could go along with that? Had they understood really the possibility of death?

Lavender Brown was next.

They had pulled a blanket over her so as to preserve the memory of her, she had been killed by Fenrir Greyback, who had been rather ruthless to her. Harry paused there to think of something to say for her, she had been Ron’s crazy ex, but she had also been valiant in the battle. 

When nothing came to mind, Harry conjured sprigs of lavender from the greenhouse and placed them on the white sheet.

Fred, Remus and Tonks were close together, this is where the majority of his friends had come to gather. Numbly Harry hugged each one before he went to sit next to the only other man in his life who had ever felt like a father figure to harry; his other godfather.

What if things had been different? What if the marauders had known that Pettigrew would betray them? Would he have known Remus and Sirius to be his odd uncles? Would they have been happy instead?

“You can’t think about what if’s all the time Harry.” The voice of reason spoke from behind him, and he turned to look at the girl with a sigh. 

“’Mione, how is it you always know what is going on in everyone’s heads?” His voice sounded rough even to his own ears and he winced at it a little.

She considered this as she sat down beside him, the warmth of her arm snaking around his waist was enough to crack him in half. “It’s a lot easier to understand other people’s thoughts than my own sometimes…” 

She held him as he cried for a while, tears streaming down her own face. Eventually, when Harry cleared his eyes and looked around again he noticed Ron had joined them but could not remember when.

It felt like hours had passed, when in reality it had only been half an hour of sitting there, the tension in the room was heavy and dulled the sounds of mourning. 

Eventually Harry would have to go home, though he wasn’t sure where that even was anymore? 

Harry knew that Privet drive would never be home to him again, if it ever was in the first place, he held no longing to ever return.

Of course the Weasley’s had offered him a place with them, but he was pretty sure that he wanted to give them space to mourn the death of their son. 

In the end it was 12 Grimmauld Place that called to him, the only place that he had ever felt at home, and perhaps a place where he would have ended up if Sirius had not passed. 

It was there in the house that had once held the Order of the Phoenix that Harry had received an unexpected visitor. On his doorstep stood a woman with light brown hair and a face so like her sister that Harry could only assume she was Andromeda.

With her was a small baby boy with turquoise hair.

“Teddy….” His voice broke when he said the babies name.

“Potter.” The woman’s voice was similar to Narcissa’s but there was a softness in it, a care that he had never heard from her sister.

She let him take the baby as they retreated into his house, he held Teddy and cooed at him, rocking him back and forth like it was the most natural thing. “So I suppose you’re here to tell me that you’ll be raising him now?” His voice was quiet, nervous, but he needed to know that Teddy would be safe, that his godson would be well looked after.

“Well… That is sort of what I have come here for…” She started to say as the entered the large kitchen.

Harry moved to sit with Teddy before hesitating. “Would you like some tea? If you want to take Teddy I could brew us a pot-“

The woman waved her hand dismissing him immediately. “I can put the pot on myself, you take your time with him, it appears as though you need it.” She moved like she knew what exactly she was doing and it was only then that he remembered that this had once been her home as well. “As you know my sister and nephew turned against the dark lord in the fight.” She stated this as a matter of fact, not pausing long enough for him to confirm or even acknowledge it. “My brother-in-law is going to prison and the ministry is trying to decide just what they wish to do with his son and wife.” She pulled tea bags down from the cupboard and set out two mugs, waiting patiently for the water to boil. “They have asked me to watch over them while they figure it out…. The only problem being that I do not think it is appropriate for them to be around Teddy just yet.” 

Harry’s face twisted a little, Narcissa had saved his life, and he had saved Draco’s, but he wasn’t really sure yet how he felt about either of them. He was certain though that he didn’t want them around his godson until he knew just where they stood. “So you came here to ask me to….?”

The woman poured the boiling water into the two cups with the bags, taking her time to come up with just the right way to say it. “I think the safest place for Teddy right now is in the care of his godfather.”


	2. It Takes A Village

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry faces the biggest challenge any unprepared parent does at first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is two days late! It was a weekend! I will try much harder to keep on schedule this week as there is a lot less going on in my life this week. Hopefully things will finally settle in!

Harry had stared down the barrel of a muggle gun more than once.

This he meant both metaphorically and quite literally.

While Vernon and Petunia lived in a nicer neighborhood, the children that Harry had hung around with in elementary, the only ones who would pay him half a mind but not close enough for Harry to have called them friends, did not. 

He had faced down the dark lord, all his followers, he had faced literal dragons, merpeople, he had, had bones magicked right out of his body, had stood on death’s doorstep, talked to a ghost and returned just in time to save the world, but nothing was scarier than the task he faced then.

With all of those things he had known what he was doing, just what he was facing;

But this was uncharted territory.

The tabs sounded almost like muggle Velcro as he peeled them back, another waiting to the side for him to be quick. The second he opened it the smell hit him like he was back in the car and the Hogwarts Express had caught up to them. 

But that was not the worst of it, not even close, because that was just the way his afternoon was going. It trailed up and into fabric that Harry was peeling away, wiping at it with the damp cloths that he pulled in mass from the package trying to move as quickly as he could because Percy had warned him that he needed to be quick. The ginger had not warned him why he had to be quick, so when suddenly the brunette man suddenly found his shirt soaked in foul-smelling yellow liquid he knew exactly what the man was warning him of.

There was a laugh from the doorway and Harry thanked Merlin that it was just Hermione. “Bloody hell Harry, have you never changed a diaper before in your life?” That did not need an answer, both of them already knew the truth, of course the boy who lived, raised in a cupboard and never had, had a real family until Hogwarts had never changed a diaper. 

She made it look impossibly easy though, using the new diaper to shield herself from the possibility of being peed on. He watched as she made quick work of the mess like she had been doing it all her life and it occurred to Harry that he supposed she had what with her cousins in Sussex and their 6 young children. “’Mione, what would I do if Neville had never lost his rat?”

“Been mauled to death by Fluffy.” She said it without missing a beat, her face dead serious for a moment or so before her lips cracked a smile as she lifted Teddy from the changing table Kreacher had found in the attic. “You would have been like any other floundering parent, you would have figured it out eventually.” Her words were soft as she turned to him, the teal haired baby cradled against her chest. “Now go get a shower, you smell awful.” She made a shooing motion as she moved to the small pile of clothes that the house elf had collected and none of them had dared to ask where from.

_____________________

By the time he had gotten out of the shower, the Black house had come alive, what remained of the Order and the D.A. had gathered there as if this was their biggest mission. “Blimey, is there another battle I was unaware of?” He rubbed his scar, a force of habit, as if it would give him an answer, it did not.

Dean and Seamus were curled together on the end of the couch, the paler man was cooing at the baby in his partner’s hands, his finger wrapped up in Teddy’s firm grip. “What a delight you are, yes you are.” He could hear their soft whispers making the baby giggle as his tiny eyes, which were currently the same delightful amber as Dean’s, darted around, studying the faces of the people who would be there every step of the way to raise him. Faces that he knew and always would as family. 

“Thought we ought to help you out, given everything that you gave up, given everything that had happened. We might be odd, but I reckon were family now either way.” The voice belonged to Bill Weasley, the scars on his face reminding him of Lupin for the split second he was caught off guard. 

“It takes a village dear.” Molly Weasley was grinning as she paused to kiss her son’s cheek gently, pulling him down enough to do so. “Merlin knows I had the order to raise these boys, no sense in you raising Teddy without it.

Harry had not known just how much needed to be done to make Grimmauld place a home, but after several hours and everyone working together to clean it was starting to look like a place that someone would live in. They had focused on the main rooms, the kitchen, the living room, the sitting room, the study, the bathroom and the nursery. Harry would not let them touch his bedroom. 

It wasn’t perfect, but it was home and now it was baby proofed.

When he had thought they all had left he wanted to call out after them, wanted to call them back, he stood there looking out the window wondering how any of them had thought it was a good idea to leave the baby alone with him. This was a mistake, he didn’t know what he was doing, he was going to fuck this all-

His fearful thoughts cut off by the sound of a voice behind him. “Don’t worry Harry, you’ve always got someone to help you.”

Her bright near white hair was practically floating around her face as she spoke in her usual airy tone. “Luna, I didn’t know you were still here… sorry.” He looked to his friend sheepishly and wondered for a moment why she would stay.

“Until you feel settled in we’ve decided we're going to take shifts helping you.” Her smile lit right up as she held her hands out to take the baby from him. “Tonight is my turn to keep the gnargles and the mares away.” She took Teddy like she was made for this and Harry wondered for a moment where Ginny was, she would be dying over just how cute her crush was with the baby. 

Harry settled on taking a picture of Teddy and ‘Aunty Luna’ that he would inevitably give to the girl later, under the guise of wanting photos of Teddy growing up so that he had something Harry had never had, memories. Though that was also true, the whole party of people this afternoon had been heavily photographed by Percy who had started in on an obsession with photography which had started even before the fighting and the war. 

“I’m going to go make dinner I guess.” Harry said quietly, after having been raised, and he used that term loosely, by Petunia who used him more as a slave, Harry was at least decently versed in cooking.

Luna looked up from the baby after a long moment. “Teddy and I are going to go looking for soot sprites in the unused bedrooms.” Harry thought about protesting, but he knew well enough that though she sometimes said peculiar things, Luna was truly brilliant and had a heart of gold.

“I’ll let you know when it’s ready.” The scarred boy had been a little hurt when Ginny had broken up with him, realizing that he had something to him she wasn’t interested in, and that she was looking for someone a little softer in certain areas. He could not blame the woman for her feelings towards the peculiar girl they’d all grown to love, and so no hard feelings remained between them. In the end Ginny felt more like a sister anyways and though Ron was a little disappointed that Harry had not become his legal brother, the ginger man had gotten over it when he came to terms with the fact that Harry would always be apart of his family. 

Though this sort of left Harry with very little options, it left Harry with a resolve that he would always be alone, and he was okay with that, because as alone as he was in terms of dating, he had plenty of love in his life from those who made up his family. He would have support from them to raise Teddy, who needed partners anyways? They were just complicated….

Or at least that was what Harry would keep telling himself.


End file.
